Diversity Bites University

Inside Higher Ed brings us
the torrid story of how diversity politics is playing out
at New Mexico Highlands University, based in Las Vegas, NM.

Now, it is Inside Higher Ed, so you'll have to do
some between-the-lines reading and euphemism-translation to
figure out what's going on. For example, the opening:

As the U.S. population grows increasingly brown, it is difficult to find
a college official who isn't firmly in favor of striving for a
diverse faculty.

Ignoring the non sequitur, you'll have to figure out that this
really means that very few college officials are interested
in making hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions solely on
academic work and professional qualifications.

At NMHU, that meant that when they were looking for
a president a couple of years back, the
five finalists for the position were, well, not really
that "diverse":

From a pool of five Latino males, they selected Manny Aragon, a former
New Mexico state senator. He had long been a political champion of
higher education issues and was known for his familiarity and resonance
with the Latino population, in particular.

… and also had no experience in academic administration.
But still, he was able to wangle a $165K salary, a house,
a car, and what this writer
calls a "slush fund." For a university with about 3500
students,
that's not too shabby.

The idea was that Aragon was supposed to
turn NMHU around from its recent history of declining enrollment,
deficits, and accreditation problems. That didn't happen.

Earlier this year, NMHU paid a cool quarter-million dollars
to settle
a gender and racial discrimination suit filed by a former staffer
(identified in the linked article as "Anglo").

And, perhaps not surprisingly, the Regents who hired President Aragon
are now looking to dump him. To add to the misery index at the school,
Aragon is refusing to go quietly. And (as I type)
numerous
New Mexico courts have gotten involved to tie the issue
up in knots.

Interestingly enough, you won't find squat about any of this
at the university's "News
& Info" page (Although you'll find that the university's float
won first
prize at the Fourth of July Fiesta Parade in Las Vegas. Good for
them.)

I rarely sermonize here, but:
as long as educational institutions are willing to
to put their thumbs on the scale, preferring some
ethnic and racial
groups over others in the name of "diversity,"
we'll continue to see this kind of sad story.
Over and over again.

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